The Museum will be formally
opened by Mayor of Assisi, Stefania Proietti, and AIBA Vice
President Franco Falcinelli who is also President of the
European Boxing Confederation (EUBC).

The new Museum is housed in the Montedison structure, located
above the Lyric Theatre and forms part of the Italian Boxing
Federation’s High Performance Unit and National Technical
Centre.

The project was created in 2004
by then Secretary of the Ministry for Cultural Assets and
Activities, Hon. Mario Pescante (now Ambassador to the
International Olympic Committee within the United Nations), who
accepted the challenge from FPI President Franco Falcinelli.

“The creation of the first National Boxing Museum is the result
of general goodwill, including the fundamental commitment and
availability of the Municipality of Assisi and the Italian
Boxing Federation – said President Franco Falcinelli -. The
keywords to describe it are “to gather, to show, to inform and
to engage.” It will be possible to admire both the permanent and
temporary exhibition among the spaces dedicated to conferences,
meetings, cultural events, training and updating.”

Visiting the Museum you can admire historical objects of the
‘Noble Art’ like the rings used in 1983 for the World Cup, where
amateur champions of the calibre of Francesco Damiani (superheavyweight),
Maurizio Cue (bantamweight) and Luciano Bruno (welterweight)
came, saw and conquered gold medals against all comers.

There are also paintings, videos, books, newspapers, gloves,
uniforms of the athletes and Olympic gold medals: Nino
Benvenuti’s in Rome 1960, Maurizio Strip’s in Los Angeles 1984,
Roberto Cammarelle’s in Beijing 2008. That said it is worth a
visit by boxing fans of any Nation though the majority of
exhibits are Italian.

There is also an exhibition dedicated to Italian women’s boxing
which insofar as Italy is concerned, had its baptism in
2001,when the first officially sanctioned ‘amateur’ bouts took
place in the town of Umbertide, famous for its mediaeval Castle
and its beautiful Ceramics.

When next in Assisi be sure to have a look at the National
Boxing Museum, the brainchild of Franco Falcinelli. It’s well
worth a visit!

Photo: courtesy of European
Boxing Confederation (EUBC)

Photo of : Mayor of Assisi, Stefania Proietti, and the EUBC
President Franco Falcinelli